Articles

A life-changing push for youth: City's educational underclass must break failure mind-set

By Marvin Arrington
For the Journal-Constitution
April 11, 2008

Recently, after briefly excusing those white persons who were present in my courtroom, I spoke to the African-Americans who were facing serious criminal charges. The interest in what I did and said on that day has been astounding. The message I delivered that day has received overwhelming support from throughout the country. However, since some mistook my action as racially motivated, I feel it is important for me to set the record straight.

Over the nearly six years I have been a judge on the Fulton County Superior Court, more than 90 percent of the defendants appearing before me charged with serious crimes are African-American. They come largely from the communities in this city where I grew up. That fact distilled in my mind as I was completing my recently published autobiography and compelled me to speak to them. I challenged those young people to get themselves together, get an education and change their lives as many before them have done.

I repeated the comments the following week to everyone who was present. The reason I admonished the defendants, and will continue to do so, stems from my longstanding belief that obtaining an education is the key to a better life.

Two images of youth

As a judge and an active member of the Atlanta community for more than 40 years, I have formed two images of the younger generation in our city.

One image of Atlanta's young people is formed by the thousands who complete their work in the Atlanta public school system each year and go on to excel in life. They largely come from strong families of all races and ethnicities who are in the ranks of the middle class. Their education helps them maintain that standing in our community.

A smaller group comes from less fortunate circumstances, often without strong family structures. Both —- those from privileged families who re-create their families' successes and those who improve their lives beyond their family circumstances —- should make every citizen proud.

There is another image, however, that undermines this pride in Atlanta because it threatens the future of our city. It is the image of young people who form the underclass of urban America. These young people operate outside the norms of society. They are largely school dropouts, often involved in a drug-based, increasingly violent "street" economy.

Given the 54 percent dropout rate of Atlanta public schools, it is unlikely that this growing number of young people will ever be able to live as productive members of our community.

However, what I see in both groups only strengthens my commitment to do more for the education of Atlanta's future generation.

Involvement essential

How can we sit idle while those most in need of a good education are failing at school and at life? We all know that a good education has the power to change lives. We know how to provide a good education to our young people. It is clear that good things are happening in our schools today for some of our young people, but far too many are being lost. All of our efforts to improve our schools will fall short unless we address the erosive problem of failure among our young at the most fundamental level. We must focus on each child, mind by mind. Each of us must do something if we are to focus the minds and hearts of our young people on visions of success. We must promote activities designed to improve young minds, enhance their educational success and involve them in the good work of our community. We must support peer tutoring, adult mentoring and community work programs. These are classic, time-tested and powerful strategies that focus efforts at the most fundamental level on individual children.

Stop the exclusion

Over the past 20 years, successive blue-ribbon panels, commissions and documents have focused on how to change schools so that America can keep pace with technological advances in an ever-changing global economy. These efforts are to be applauded, as they have led to a number of important school reforms.

But given today's extraordinary dropout rate and a burgeoning underclass in Atlanta, substantial numbers of young people are excluded from today's work force because jobs require skills they lack because they didn't complete their education.

This is a problem that will not just go away. Each of us must become personally involved to create a culture of success and achievement in each child, one mind at a time.

Marvin Arrington is a Fulton County Superior Court judge and former Atlanta City Council president.

Source: http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/
opinion/stories/2008/04/11/arringtoned0411.html

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